European, global and intercultural dimensions in curriculum development

Issues of internationalisation in state education programmes

Issues of internationalisation are a part of state educational programmes for kindergartens,  1st and 2nd-level of primary schools, and gymnasiums in the educational area Man and Society (Človek a spoločnosť).

State educational programmes for primary and general secondary education integrate issues of internationalisation into the content of education also in a cross-cutting issue of multicultural education. Through learning about their own culture as well as other cultures, history, customs and traditions, pupils learn to respect these cultures and communicate and cooperate with the members of these cultures constructively.

Global education

The issue of global education is a part of the School Year Guide (Sprievodca školským rokom). It recommends schools to implement global context into educational content and increase children's and pupils' knowledge of global issues.

Global education also encompasses global development education (education about developing countries and poverty in the world), environmental education, multicultural education, peace education, as well as human rights education in the global context.

There are more non-governmental organisations dealing with global education in Slovakia using their own professional and creative approaches. 'People in Peril' civil society creates methodologies for teachers and runs GlobálneVzdelávanie.sk portal.

Cooperation with the Global Education Network Europe

Global Education Network Europe (GENE) is a European network connecting representatives of European ministries and development agencies which are responsible for global education. It aims to support and improve the coordination of global education in Europe. GENE also supports the creation of studies on the state of global education and national strategies in individual countries (so-called peer reviews) and it regularly organises round tables. GENE Peer Review of Slovakia took place in 2013.

Slovakia has been a GENE member since 2004 and regularly participates in roundtable meetings, which are held every six months. 
The Slovak Agency for International Development Cooperation and GENE signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the years 2017 – 2018, which aimed to support global education in Slovakia as a part of the GENE programme Increase and Innovation. The tasks also included coordination of the implementation of projects and activities that focus on supporting and grounding global education in the Slovak education system and the cooperation between key participants from this area. 
 

International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

In 2005, the Slovak Republic became a member of the international International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance  (IHRA). The Ministry of Education cooperates with organisations such as the Holocaust Documentation Centre in Bratislava (Dokumentačné  stredisko holokaustu v Bratislave), Museum of Jewish Culture (Múzeum židovskej kultúry)  and the civil association EDAH to implement educational activities on the holocaust in Slovakia. The activities aim to educate selected history teachers and other humanities teachers who teach the holocaust to increase the quality of instruction to the international standards as well as create better learning materials.

Consumer education

The European dimension is also characterized by the integration of consumer education issues and support of consumer citizenship into citizenship education as well as into other subjects in the state educational programme. Support of consumer literacy is provided for all EU member states by an international project Consumer Classroom financed by the European Committee.

The Slovak Republic has direct representation in the Project group for modern languages as well as in the European Centre for Modern Languages in Graz. The network of school facilities in the Slovak Republic contains also 23 state and 6 private language schools.

National Centres of Vocational Education – Implementation of dual education elements into vocational education and training in the Slovak Republic

The National Centres of Vocational Education project (Národné centrá pre odborné vzdelávanie) focuses on solving the high unemployment rate among young people in the Danubian area in contrast with the lack of qualified workforce. JehoIt aims to contribute to further modernisation of the vocational education system in Slovakia and thus provide an impetus to other countries in the Danubian region – Austria and Germany. 

The project also aims to contribute to the complex reform of the system of vocational education and training not only on the systemic level, but also through the analysis of experience from the pilot projects implemented in the manufacturing industry in Slovakia. By increasing the quality of practical training at the employer, the project can contribute to meeting the goals of the Europe 2020 strategy and the Bruges Communiqué. 

The project is coordinated by the Ministry of Education, Research, Development, and Youth of the Slovak Republic. 
 

Partnerships and networks

European Schoolnet

The Ministry of Education, Research, Development, and Youth of the SR has been a member of the European Schoolnet (EUN) since 2009. The consortium associates the Ministries of Education of the European Union and also of other countries to promote the use of information technology in education.

eTwinning

Slovak schools participate in the European Spring campaign. The Slovak Republic is also involved in the eTwinning project. Within the project, the National Service for Electronic Cooperation was established at the University of Žilina. It promotes mutual partnership projects between schools from different countries by managing the website, organising of workshops, conferences, seminars and a competition. The projects are innovative, they may be incorporated into the curriculum, and they are based on students’ cooperation and creative use of information and communication technologies. During five years of existence, more than half of Slovak schools were involved in the project.

ReferNet

ReferNet- the European Network of Reference and Expertise - is an information network focused on providing and disseminating information on the developments in vocational education and training in each EU country, Norway and Iceland. The processed information is published on special websites and databases administered by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop).

The national coordinator of the ReferNet activities in Slovakia is the Slovak National Observatory of Vocational Education and Training (SNO), which is a part of the State Institute of Vocational Education.

European System of Credit Transfer in Vocational Education and Training

As a part of its activities, the Slovak Academic Association for International Cooperation – National Erasmus+ agency (Slovenská akademická asociácia pre medzinárodnú spoluprácu) for education and vocational training created a National ECVET expert team which is financially supported by the European Committee. The national ECVET expert team aims to inform the professional public on the implementation of ECVET or its elements into practice, verify and create institutional, political and technical conditions for its implementation and use in Slovakia. The goal of ECVET is to enable recognition of results achieved by a learner during mobility .

National ECVET expert team (Národný tím expertov ECVET) consists of experts dealing with ECVET issues and its practical use be it at the level of schools, national institutions or employers. At the same time, their task is to provide counselling in the process of preparation of individual ECVET elements for practical implementation. This may be as a part of the project or daily organisation activities dealing with this issue. In addition to other activities, the national agency with the ECVET expert team organises workshops on ECVET issues.